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While yearning for a lost Arcadia ("Passion dies for bride of the state", THES , August 2), Kenneth Minogue refers to the state "adopting increasing numbers of rather backward children". Assuming he was not referring to people with learning difficulties and disabilities, we have to conclude that the widening participation agendas adopted by successive governments are not to Minogue's taste and that these backward souls should have remembered their place and not presumed to rise above their station.

Malcolm Barry
Deal